Maybe Tomorrow
by snowyplains
Summary: [NS] another short one from me... (updated) now it's slightly less short
1. Default Chapter

Title: Maybe Tomorrow  
Author: snowyplains  
Rating: a very tame G  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, and CBS/Alliance Atlantis/Jerry Bruckheimer does. One day, I'll own a show of my own =) or...maybe not.  
Note: I wanted to write something fun, but judging by the length of this story, I didn't have fun for long. I'm not entirely opposed to continuing this story...I haven't decided yet.

"Would you marry me?"  
  
The words were out before I could stop them. I had been thinking about her all day, and now that she had entered the room, I had to say something to her.  
  
She grins at me. "Yeah, definitely." She goes back to fixing herself a cup of coffee  
  
"What?!" I wasn't quite sure I had heard her right. Either that, or she had misunderstood the question.  
  
"Surprised you, didn't I?" she says, almost as if that was sufficient explanation for her answer before she leaves with her freshly brewed coffee. I wasn't about to leave it at that. I follow her out into the hall, and she turns to face me.  
  
"You'd marry me." I state, the sentence dangling between us, as I waited for her to refute, explain, throw herself into my arms, whatever. I was waiting for her to do something.  
  
"Yes." She repeats her answer as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.   
  
"As in, right now?" I could faint right here.  
  
A smile twists at her lips. "You asked me a question regarding a fictional scenario, right?" She doesn't wait for an answer before she continues down the hall.   
  
I watch her as she disappears down the hall, and I mentally kick myself as I walk back into the lounge. I could have handled that one better. I had just asked her how she would feel about getting married to me, and I didn't probe further to ask anything else.   
  
"Do you even like me?" would probably be a good place to start.  
  
Or, "Did you know I was serious?"  
  
And maybe "Are you planning to use me marriage insurance in case you don't find anyone better?" I had heard stories of friends deciding to marry each other in the event they reach middle age (or beyond) unhitched.   
  
She probably would never be so desperate. She'd rather die alone then to agree to something so ridiculous. Those kind of arrangements work out for some people. I'd bet money she wasn't one of them.  
  
And if I was to marry her, I wouldn't be settling.  
  
"What did you expect me to say?" I hadn't even noticed her come back in. She had forgotten a file folder full of pictures from her last case, and she motions to it. "You look so...contemplative."  
  
"Well, I didn't expect you to say yes."  
  
She sits down next to me. "You wanted me to say no?" She sounds amused, kind of the way she talks when she's teasing Greg.  
  
"I guess I wasn't really expecting anything." I can only imagine how incoherent I must be sounding for a guy who had just hypothetically proposed.   
  
She reaches over briskly, collecting the file folder and loose pictures. "Well, it doesn't really matter, does it? You're not actually planning on marrying me."  
  
"Not yet."  
  
"You better make your move fast then. I have proposals coming at me left and right." She was smiling widely at me now, and I was the one feeling uncomfortable. She was having fun with this.  
  
"I wouldn't doubt it, Sara. I mean, a woman like you?" I sure as hell wasn't going to let her have the last word.   
  
"Don't you forget it, Nick." she laughs, and walks out the door with her folder.


	2. chapter 2

I just had one of the most flirtatious, revealing and candid conversations with the most beautiful woman in the building. How could I just let her walk out like that without holding her accountable, however mildly, to everything she had just said to me? But what was I going to say to her once I caught up to her?  
  
On the bright side, I had now established that she was not going to run screaming the other way from me...that at the very least, she found me palatable enough to marry without a second thought, despite the fact that she didn't know very much about me outside of work. I walk out to the parking lot anyway, and see her getting into her car. Too preoccupied with searching for her sunglasses that she didn't notice me standing by her open car door. As she puts them on, I grab the handle firmly to keep her from closing the door, and finally catches her attention when she tries to slam it shut unsuccessfully. She pulls her sunglasses off her face and smirks at me.  
  
"Have you come back for more?"  
  
I could play this game too. She was bantering with me, and just talking to her like this was giving me a rush. "Depends...how much are you willing to give?"  
  
"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves here. Are you sure you could handle me?"  
  
"Are you...are you asking me out?" I was absolutely floored.  
  
She's smiling to the point of openly laughing at me now. "No."  
  
What was she up to? The way she was looking at me, the devious expression and her huge grin, was intoxicating. "That's okay. I don't need to date you to know that I could handle you just fine."  
  
She raises her eyebrows at me. "So what are you waiting for?"  
  
For the second time today, I was nonplussed. "What?"  
  
"Ask me to marry you."  
  
Was she serious? "You just said you wouldn't go out with me. I'd just be setting myself up for disappointment here."  
  
I didnt think it was possible for her to look any more enticing that she already did, but she managed to. "No...I think you've got it wrong." She steps out of her car, and stands uncomfortably close to me, leaning on her car door. "We've already established that I'd marry you. What I said was that I wasn't asking you out."  
  
She was so close I could smell her cherry lip balm. Did she have any idea what she was doing to me here? I really didn't think she had it in her to be such a tease. She was usually so reserved in the lab, except when she was pissed off and looking for something to kill. "So you want to skip over the whole courtship ritual and just run off together? Hell, I haven't even kissed you."  
  
She inches closer and plants one on me before stepping back, arms crossed with a self-satisfied smirk on her face. She hadn't touched me in any way, and her kiss was controlled, almost sterile, offering no indication to me that she had liked it.  
  
And I was still about to have a coronary. Sara Sidle had just kissed me. "Okay," I stare at her. "I don't think you're playing fair here."  
  
"I didn't know this was a game." she counters.  
  
I have to be dreaming. I'm also beginning to wonder if she's drunk.  
  
Her phone rings. She picks it up and answers it without breaking eye contact with me. "It's Warrick. He has updated pictures of the crime scene he wants me to pick up before I leave." She maneuvers herself around the still open car door and closes it. "So if you'll excuse me..." She's still smiling at me, daring me with her eyes to make a move. Of course. She knows me well enough to assume I won't.  
  
She's right.   
  
I kiss her on the cheek, all I can manage right now, before she goes back to the lab, and I head to my own car, needing desperately to go home and clear my mind.   
  
Her voice breaks through my daze as she walks away, echoing my thoughts: "C'mon Nick. You can do better than that." 


End file.
